Community Health Champions in Lincolnshire Review and Scoping Exercise Report

The Lincolnshire 2012 Joint Health and Well-being Strategy identified the need to ‘develop a Community Health Champion programme for Lincolnshire building on current good practice that will enable people to volunteer to offer help and support to other members of their community in leading healthier lives’. This was intended to be one of two interlinked schemes, designed to achieve the key outcome of supporting people to lead healthier lives

The Leeds Winter Warmth Scheme 2012/13: An Evaluation Summary

Following on from last year’s successful Warm Homes Healthy People Campaign, NHS Leeds (Public Health), Leeds City Council and partners in the voluntary sector decided to launch an expanded campaign in 2012 in order to support a more varied range of services over the winter period. The overall project amounted to £527,368 which comprised £171,000 set aside by NHS Leeds together with £199,067 of funding from the Department of Health’s Warm Homes Healthy People Fund which was jointly bid for by Leeds City Council, NHS Leeds and our voluntary sector partners, £130,393 from Leeds City Council’s bid to the DECC fuel poverty fund which was used to enable the Warm Homes Service to provide larger scale capital measures such as heating and boiler replacements and other funding from partners. As with the 2011-12 Warm Homes Healthy People Fund, projects were selected that addressed those needs that were known to arise and increase within the City during winter

Evaluation of the HSCVF Bursary Scheme

The ‘Building Sustainability: Extended Support Package’ aimed to increase the capacity and sustainability of 94 local projects - all were Voluntary, Community and Social Enterprise (VCSE) organisations funded by the Health and Social Care Volunteering Fund (HSCVF). The bursary scheme, as it became known, was managed by Ecorys as the lead partner alongside Eastside Primetimers, CSV and Attend as the three delivery partners. Projects chose from a menu of over 50 offers including mentoring, coaching, on-site support, training and ‘other’. A Support Consultant, allocated to each project, helped them assess their needs, choose the most appropriate offers and submit the application. The scheme was introduced in 2012 with all offers utilised by May 2013. It was funded by the Department of Health. This report presents the findings from an evaluation undertaken by the Institute for Health & Wellbeing at Leeds Metropolitan University

People in Public Health. Research Summary

Members of the public are becoming increasingly important in the delivery of public health programmes. The work they do varies. They might give out information about a health issue or tell people about a local service. They might help someone who is going to a health improvement activity for the first time or organise a group that encourages healthy living. Some are paid, others are volunteers. The People in Public Health research study wanted to find out more about these lay health workers. It wanted to discover what type of things they do in public health programmes, how they are recruited, trained and supported and what is needed to make these approaches work well

Literature Review - Health behaviour change models and approaches for families and young people to support HEAT 3: Child Healthy Weight Programmes

The literature review has been commissioned by NHS Health Scotland to review the health behaviour change models and approaches for families, children and young people to support the development and delivery of effective child healthy weight programmes. Despite the consistent recommendations from NICE and SIGN for the inclusion of behavioural components in child healthy weight programmes, there is little information on effectiveness of specific techniques and which to incorporate. The aim was therefore to provide information on which specific behavioural treatment components, behaviour change models and approaches should underpin clinical guidelines and childhood obesity treatment programmes. Secondly, in light of recommendations for programmes to be delivered by appropriately trained professionals, the review aimed to identify the skills and competencies required and resources and training available for effective delivery of the behavioural components. The outcomes of the literature review will be applied in enhancing the guidance for practitioners involved in the development and delivery of effective child healthy weight programmes; and thereby support achievement of the Scottish Government’s HEAT 3 target aimed at monitoring the attendance and completion of approved ’child healthy weight intervention programmes’. The report includes the background, aims, and objectives, sets out the scope of the review, presents a brief description of the methods and main findings. The methods and stakeholder views are then presented followed by a discussion of the implications for applying the evidence in practice and further research recommendations

Estimating the maximum rise in temperature according to climate models using abstract interpretation

Current climate models are complex computer programs that are typically iterated time-step by time-step to predict the next set of values of the climate-related variables. Since these iterative methods are necessarily computed only for a fixed number of iterations, they are unable to answer the natural question whether there is a limit to the rise of global temperature. In order to answer that question we propose to combine climate models with software verification techniques that can find invariant conditions for the set of program variables. In particular, we apply the constraint database approach to software verification to find that the rise in global temperature is bounded according to the common Java Climate Model that implements the Wigely/Raper Upwelling-Diffusion Energy Balance Model climate model

Factors influencing take-up of free school meals in primary- and secondary-school children in England.

OBJECTIVE: The present study sought to explore the factors that influence registration for free school meals and the subsequent take-up following registration in England. DESIGN: The research design consisted of two phases, a qualitative research phase followed by an intervention phase. Findings are presented from the qualitative research phase, which comprised interviews with head teachers, school administrators, parents and focus groups with pupils. SETTING: The study took place in four primary schools and four secondary schools in Leeds, UK. SUBJECTS: Participants included head teachers, school administrators, parents and pupils. RESULTS: Findings suggested that parents felt the registration process to be relatively straightforward although many secondary schools were not proactive in promoting free school meals. Quality and choice of food were regarded by both pupils and parents as significant in determining school meal choices, with stigma being less of an issue than originally anticipated. CONCLUSIONS: Schools should develop proactive approaches to promoting free school meals and attention should be given not only to the quality and availability of food, but also to the social, cultural and environmental aspects of dining. Processes to maintain pupils' anonymity should be considered to allay parents' fear of stigma